Cliff has been building
frames for more years than he cares to remember, having worked at many and
various shops, and for the last 10 years has been building frames at the
request of anyone that can track him down. Cliff builds only in steel and he
not only designs the frames to your requirements, he also keeps you involved
with progress all along the build.

Cliff builds in the new
Reynolds 953!

Since building the
Columbus Ultra Foco for me, my brother decided that he would like to try the
new Reynolds tubing – 953, and who better to build it for him than the one and
only Cliff Shrubb. There was a queue for a new frame from Cliff – he had the
audacity to build a frame for himself, also in 953. (The first frame Cliff has
built for himself in over 25 years!) 953 is a stainless steel tube set and
Cliffy complained about how hard it was to work with and how it blunts all his
cutting tools, but nevertheless two frames were produced, a road frame for
Cliff, completed with the new SRAM groupset, and a track frame for Jeff, (with
brake bridge, for single speed road use). The problem with the track frame was
that Jeff decided to go “Old School” and requested a lugged frame, and as 953
is in new metric sizes, with an oversize downtube, this posed a problem! Cliff
had to hunt around for lugs, having to make some fit, although the seatpost/top
tube lug was a major problem until Cliffy found that a tandem lug was the right
diameter, but needed to lose some part of it. A bit of cutting and filing made
the perfect lug and Cliff was able to produce the required, fully lugged frame.
Paint was again left to David Crowe of Colour-Tech Resprays (01322 555549),
with Cliff’s frame being finished in ‘Battleship Grey’, and Jeff’s in plain
Gloss Black, with Gold lug lining. David Crowe is one of the few sprayers who is
prepared to take the time to do lug lining, and the results were excellent, and
with gold Cliff Shrubb decals the frame looks superb.

The fork is a full carbon Easton EC90 Superlite, one
of the lightest available, with a Token sealed headset. Keeping the bike sleek
and clean was the plan, so it was decided to keep as much of the equipment as
possible, black. Cinelli Solida bars and Stem, carbon Campagnolo Record brake
levers, and black Easton
bar tape took care of the front end. Stopping was left to the really excellent
Mavic brakes, (lighter than the new Record skeleton brakes!), in black of
course. BB and cranks are Campag Record, with a TA single chainset, again all
in black. Seating arrangements are a Pyrotec seatpost topped off with a Selle
Italia Era. (Jeff is a vegetarian, and uses nothing leather, so saddles are
hard to find, but lots of Selle Italia are covered in Lorica, a synthetic
material also used in making Sidi shoes, so another problem taken care of!)
Black anodized Egg-beater pedals finish off the drive train. Wheels are black
Mavic Open Pro, laced with silver spokes onto SystemEx double sided hubs, for
fixed and freewheel. Tyres are the new Michelin Krylion carbons.

The completed bike looks
stunning and doesn’t get ridden too far without someone stopping Jeff to be
able to take a closer look at the bike. The pictures do not really do justice
to Cliffs work, but rest assured it is perfect. (Jeff almost didn’t get it
sprayed, he was just going to have it polished and lacquered, to show off the
workmanship!) When it does get going it rides and handles just the way it was
designed to do, Thanks Cliff.(Below
the bike is pictured at Bike Plus in Croydon, photo by Paul Smith)

Columbus
Ultra Foco with full carbon Muscle rear end.

Recently, at the request of me, Steve Wright,
Cliff was persuaded to build a light steel frame (Columbus Ultra Foco) with a full carbon rear
end. We chose the Columbus
Muscle rear end with the full carbon Super Muscle fork, to produce a light, but
stiff, fast handling frame. Cliff designed and built the frame’s main triangle
and then built special jigs to ensure that when the carbon rear end was glued
in place, it was in perfect track. Paint and graphics was left to David Crowe
of Colour-Tech Resprays (01322 555549) who did an excellent job with the pearl
white finish, not an easy colour to spray! The bike was built up with
Campagnolo Record Carbon Ergo’s, Record Carbon front and rear Mech, Record
differential brakes, Record Carbon seatpost, Record 10 speed chain, FSA Carbon
Pro Team Chainset, and the very good Planet X Pro Carbon 50 wheelset. Pedals
are Time Impact Magnesium, bars and stem courtesy of Cinelli, San Marco Era Pro
saddle, Specialized E-cage bottle cages and ITM bar tape.. The completed bike,
including pedals and bottle cages, weighed an extremely light 17 pounds!! The
ride is exactly as I wanted it, and I have taken it to California to ride the same roads as Lance
and his boys!Below are some pictures
just after its safe return, sorry about the dirty bar-tape.